New Jewish Theatre’s Hard-Hitting, Heart-Wrenching ‘Cabaret’ More Relevant Than Ever

New Jewish Theatre’s Hard-Hitting, Heart-Wrenching ‘Cabaret’ More Relevant Than Ever

By Lynn Venhaus

“There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies, and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany… and it was the end of the world” – “Cabaret” 1966

Eerily relevant now more than ever, the musical “Cabaret” has only grown in potency and insight over its 59-year history.

In New Jewish Theatre’s haunting production, director Rebekah Scallet has faithfully adapted Sam Mendes’ brilliant 1998 revival that emphasized the sinister motives as we witness the gathering storm that would lead to World War II and the Holocaust.

However, she has focused on making sure the parallels between then and now are clear, and she has strengthened the shattering epilogue even more than Mendes did. She puts a hard-hitting NJT stamp on it.

As impressive as her track record has been since becoming the artistic director in 2022, it’s noteworthy to mention that this is the first musical she has directed in Wool Studio.

Through the decadent setting of the seedy Kit Kat Club in 1929 Berlin, we witness the end of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis.

Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

This passionate cast resonates because of how committed they are to the bleak and shocking themes. In their telling of this story, the desperation is palpable. And their layered approach to the hummable John Kander-Fred Ebb score is commendable.

As the cunning Emcee welcomes patrons in “Wilkommen,” he seductively entices: “Leave your troubles outside! So—life is disappointing? Forget it! In here, life is beautiful. The girls are beautiful. Even the orchestra is beautiful!”

In a magnetic performance, Spencer Davis Milford embraces the tawdriness and makes sure the ominous feeling grows. He lurks in other scenes where he’s not the saucy showman, his menacing presence foreshadowing the horrors that are ahead.

Oh, he has doused his “I Don’t Care Much” and “If You Could See Her” in irony, making those numbers even more chilling. After such iconic actors as Joel Grey, Alan Cumming and Eddie Redmayne have created their indelible portraits, Milford makes the role his own.

Fresh from his starring role as Frodo Baggins in “The Lord of the Rings” national tour, he’s back home making his mark in yet another special show. His work has always captivated since he was a youngster, whether on stage at The Muny or The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, or a myriad of other companies. But this is quite a departure from anything he’s done.

When it was time for “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” I braced myself, for its intensity remains affecting — and induces chills.

As conditions deteriorate in the polarizing landscape, those loyal to the “new Germany” face apathetic citizens and those who don’t understand the consequences.. In hindsight, how could they and why were people so unaware?

Soencer Davis Milford as the Master of Ceremonies. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

The innovative 1998 Tony winning Mendes collaboration with Rob Marshall deconstructed the heralded 1966 Hal Prince show in an earlier 1993 London re-imagining. While the original introduced social commentary in uncommon staging, this version heightens the present danger of ignoring anti-Semitism.

Mendes and Marshall would go on to helm Oscar-winning films in the early 2000s – “American Beauty” and “Chicago” respectively – but their impact has carried over for several vivid revivals in the past 27 years, notably 2014 and 2024, and in this striking, moving interpretation.

Scallet makes the most of the Wool Studio’s intimate setting, through an immersive experience placing some audience members in club configurations.

As the small but vibrant ensemble delivers high-energy precision in musical numbers, Scallet skillfully maintains fluidity throughout, with brisk staging, as one scene quickly melds into another.

Ellen Isom’s crisp and snappy choreography adds pizzazz to “Don’t Tell Mama,” “Mein Herr,” “Money,” and “Two Ladies,” and the robust kick line number in second act is an exceptional feat.

Otto Klemp, Hailey Medrano and Jayson Heil. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

Music Director Carter Haney conducts the band on stage – Brad Martin on drums, Alerica Anderson on a stand-up bass, and Kris Pineda on accordion and trombone, and their polished presentation is a highlight.

Scenic Designer David Blake’s visually interesting set has a grand balcony implying secretive dalliances behind closed doors while the downstairs doubles as the nightclub stage and both Sally’s and Fraulein Schneider’s shabby living quarters.

Denisse Chavez’s lighting design shrewdly draws us into the action, highlighting the moods, while Justin Smith’s sound design captures the atmosphere.

Hailey Medrano and Dustin Lane Petrillo are strong together as flighty, flirty nightclub singer Sally Bowles and broke American writer Clifford Bradshaw, brought together by fate, desire and living on the edge.

Separately, they are heart-tugging. Petrillo brings a discernable gravitas to every role he tackles, including virtuoso work in “Red,” The Immigrant,” “Hamlet” and “A Long Day’s Journey into Night” on local stages during the past two years.

Not as innocent as he first appears, and initially caught up in the whirlwind, Cliff eventually becomes the keen —-and appalled — observer whose conscience can no longer ignore the signs.

Dustin Petrillo, Medrano and Milford. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

His character is the fictionalized British writer Christopher Isherwood, who would go on to write the semi-autobiographical novel “Goodbye to Berlin.” The musical’s book by Joe Masteroff is based on the 1951 John Van Druten play “I Am a Camera,” which is adapted from Isherwood’s collection of short stories that he wrote between 1930 and 1933, published in 1939.

Medrano, who has returned to St. Louis with memorable turns in NJT’s “We All Fall Down” last year and work with Metro Theater Company, is at her most heart-wrenching when she refuses to leave her reckless livelihood for the safety and promise of a new life.

She makes drastic self-destructive decisions after spending much of the show flaunting her tough exterior that masks an emotional fragility.

In a smart change of pace, Medrano slows down several classic renditions, boosting their power – the raw, emotional “Maybe This Time” and the title song, aka “Life is a Cabaret” (old chum!) – infused with regret – are both knockouts.

The undercurrent of irony laced with a stinging gut-punch, her anguish seeping through as she breaks. It’s all the more tragic that she chooses to remain oblivious to what’s happening.

Medrano as Sally Bowles. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

Because Sally is such a confused mess, she is not always sympathetic, but Medrano is alluring when she’s “always on” as Sally Bowles, and tender, for a time, with new love interest Cliff.

In the show’s most devastating performance, Jane Paradise projects world-weariness but also a yearning she hides with pragmatism. The veteran character actress is known for lived-in portrayals and is often the MVP in any ensemble.

As Fraulein Schneider who discovers late-in-life love, her doomed romance with shy, kind fruit vendor Herr Schultz, played sweetly by Dave Cooperstein, is agonizing, for he is a Jew, and their shared dreams collapse under the weight of current events.

From their joyous duets “The Pineapple Song” and “Married,” to her melancholy “So What” and the tragic “What Would You Do?” are sad reminders of the choices we make and life’s turns, depriving them of even a shred of happiness.

Also standing out is Aaron Fischer as the calculating smuggler Ernst Ludwig, whose growing fervor for the Third Reich is alarming. With an impeccable German accent, Fischer slowly reveals his bigotry. Fischer, fairly new to the professional stage, and splendid in last fall’s “Anastasia: The Musical” at Tesseract Theatre Company, is one of the most exciting performers to keep your eye on.

Aaron Fischer and Petrillo. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

In fact, John Wilson’s dialect work is superb from all 11 performers. Besides doubling as soldiers and shady characters, the ensemble includes devil-may-care revelers celebrating their hedonistic culture before fear and chaos will grip their world. The nightclub’s naughty boys and girls, and their free-spirited customers live in the moment: Otto Klemp as Bobby, officer, ensemble and on clarinet; Jayson Heil as Victor, Max, ensemble and on violin; Amarachi Kalu as Lulu and on the flute; Caroline Pillow as Fritzie; and Lillian Cooper as Texas and the gorilla.

Costume Designer Michele Friedman Siler expertly incorporated luxurious shiny blacks and reds for the performers, often with torn fishnet stockings, and more middle-class attire for everyone else. Because of doubling characters, costume changes are remarkably smooth.

We won’t forget, we can’t forget the unflinching cautionary tale this enduring musical tells us.

Jane Paradise and Dave Cooperstein. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

The New Jewish Theatre presents “Cabaret” from March 20 to April 13. Please check for showtimes, as several Wednesday shows have been added as well as an extended run. For mature audiences, the show has adult content. The show runs 2 hours and 15 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission. Performances take place at the SFC Performing Arts Center, 2 Millstone Campus Drive. For more information: jccstl.com. Tickets are available online at newjewishtheatre.org or by phone at 314.442.3283.

NJT’s 2025 Season is generously sponsored by Mary Strauss, with Cabaret receiving additional sponsorship from Stellie Siteman and the Siteman Family Foundation.

Alongside the production, NJT hosts special events that will give the audience a special understanding of the iconic musical:

Saturday, April 5 –The Weimar Republic the Rise of Hitler with Helen Turner

Have a conversation with Helen Turner, Education Director for the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, as she presents information about the Weimar Republic and the real-life historical events that provide the backdrop for Cabaret. This event will take place between the matinee and evening performances on Saturday, April 5. Doors will open at 4:30 with the presentation beginning at 5pm. Light refreshments will be provided. The presentation is free, but reservations are required at https://formstack.io/80312

Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

A Crisp and Snappy ‘Chicago’ Closes Out Muny’s Rejuvenated Season

A Crisp and Snappy ‘Chicago’ Closes Out Muny’s Rejuvenated Season

By Lynn Venhaus

The best produced show of the Muny’s 103rd season, “Chicago” capped off the welcome return to tradition in Forest Park this summer with a sultry and sleek music-and-dance showcase.

Everything about the production was on point – from the crisp staging by director Denis Jones and his snappy choreography to the jazzy brass beats from the swinging orchestra conducted by music director Charlie Alterman.

And this production blazes with star power. You will remember the names of the lead trio: Sarah Bowden (Roxie Hart), J. Harrison Ghee (Velma Kelly) and James T. Lane (Billy Flynn).

With snazzy music by John Kander and barbed lyrics by Fred Ebb, patterned after old-timey vaudeville numbers, and a saucy original book by Ebb and Bob Fosse, the story is a sardonic take on fame and the justice system set during the freewheeling Jazz Age.

It is based on a 1926 play by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals she covered for a newspaper in Chicago. This current script adaptation is by David Thompson, who worked with Kander and Ebb on the musicals “The Scottsboro Boys” and “Steel Pier.”

Jones’ clever concept was to set the show as an entertaining spectacle at a speakeasy, with café tables around a perimeter so it’s watched by not only the Muny audience but also by performers on stage. He did a similar staging, but not an exact replica, for the 2012 Muny version. That point of view works brilliantly.

Scenic designer Tim Mackabee gave it a striking look while the lighting design by Rob Denton added to the stylized atmosphere and the stellar video design by Shawn Duan complemented the experience perfectly.

Drenched in cynicism, “Chicago” satirizes corruption and is a show-bizzy spin on tawdry headline-grabbing trial that marked the Prohibition Era — but are also timely today. Merry murderers Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly attempt to seize the spotlight and become celebrities.

Perhaps when the musical debuted in 1975, it was ahead of its time, for contemporary audiences didn’t find it relatable.  The week after the Broadway show closed after 936 performances in the summer of 1977, it transferred to the Muny. Starring Jerry Orbach and Ann Reinking, it was not well-received (I was there).

The mostly unsympathetic characters take part in a three-ring circus that’s part illusion and part rhapsody in sleaze. Its relevance has only grown over the years, especially in the digital age of social media.

A rebirth after a robust 1996 Tony Award-winning revival received universal acclaim and broke records as the longest-running musical revival and the longest running American musical in history, second only to “The Phantom of the Opera” on the all-inclusive list (it surpassed “Cats” on Nov. 23, 2014, with its 7,486th performance).

Because the 24-hour news cycle has helped fuel an obsessive celebrity culture and the emergence of reality television has made stars out of unsavory housewives, wealthy influencers like the Kardashians and self-absorbed narcissists, now society has caught up with “Chicago’s” place in pop culture history.

It took me awhile to warm up to the musical, but after watching a few high-profile celebrity trials, you see the parallels. And those songs from the team that gave us the insightful “Cabaret” get better every time you hear them.

Sarah Bowden as Roxie Hart. Photo by Phillip Hamer.

A movie adaptation in 2002 garnered an Academy Award for Best Picture, earning six total, including Best Supporting Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma, which also helped its acceptance. It was the first musical since “Oliver!” in 1968 to win the top award.

Cut to Artistic Director and Executive Producer Mike Isaacson’s first season at The Muny in 2012, and “Chicago” was second in the line-up following Fox Theatricals’ Tony winner “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” He said it had been the most requested show on the annual survey for several years.

It’s back, for just the third time, 10 years later, with Jones, now a two-time Tony Award nominee for choreography on “Tootsie” in 2019 and “Holiday Inn” in 2017, raising the bar once again.

He has put his stamp on of two of the Muny’s best shows during the past decade, “42nd Street” in 2016 (Jones, St. Louis Theater Circle Award) and “A Chorus Line” in 2017, and now with another fresh outlook on “Chicago.”

Jones is familiar with the Broadway revival, for he was a swing performer and later dance captain, during four separate runs for him (performing in total for about four and a half years). He worked with Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth, Joel Grey and James Naughton, who began their roles in 1996. So, he had specific ideas on what to keep and what to change.

His associate choreographer, Barry Busby, deserves a shout-out too, for the dance numbers are seamless. They put the roar back in The Roaring Twenties, and the vibrancy shows in Bowden-led “Roxie” and “Me and My Baby,” and Billy’s flashy “Razzle Dazzle.”

“Chicago” will always be Fosse’s magnus opus, for his signature moves, those distinctive deliberate dance steps – and jazz hands! But this isn’t a copycat at all.  (Fosse may have lost the Tonys for choreographer and director pf “Chicago” to “A Chorus Line” in 1976, but he holds the all-time record, with eight, for choreography).

The athletic dancers excel at the high-octane numbers. Six performers carry out “Cell Block Tango” with the attitudes you expect – Liz (Madison Johnson), Annie (Taeler Cyrus), June (Veronica Fiaoni), Hunyak (Lizz Picini), Velma (Ghee), and Mona (Carleigh Bettiol), more commonly known as “Pop, Six, Squish, Uh-Uh, Cicero, and Lipschitz.”

Bowden plays Hart with verve, oozing phony wholesomeness in the public eye and a ruthless craving for attention when not. She was here once, in “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” and is an energetic firecracker on stage.

The magnetic Ghee sashays and struts as tough-as-nails Kelly, resentful of Hart being the shiny new sensation. He got our attention as Lola in “Kinky Boots” in 2019 and is a dynamic force every time he appears. Wearing satiny outfits and displaying a silky voice, he sets the tone with a seductive “All That Jazz” and an indignant “I Know a Girl,” and shows off his dexterity in “I Can’t Do It Alone.”

J Harrison Ghee, Sarah Bowden. Photo by Phillip Hamer.

Bowden is fire to Ghee’s ice, a combustible fun mix for the “My Own Best Friend” that closes Act 1 and the “Nowadays”/ “Hot Honey Rag” finale with those omnipresent canes and hats Fosse was so fond of using.

James T. Lane embodies the slick ambulance chaser lawyer Billy Flynn with a demanding and greedy nature – and delivers a dandy disingenuous “All I Care About” – accompanied by a marvelous fan dance that received its own ovation. Lane was last seen as Sebastian in 2017’s “Little Mermaid” here.

One of this show’s standout numbers is the “We Both Reached for the Gun” press conference rag with Billy pulling Roxie’s strings like a ventriloquist and the ensemble doing fast footwork.

It’s good to see veteran performers Emily Skinner and Adam Heller, who were both in The Rep’s magnificent “Follies” in 2016, and St. Louis Theater Circle nominees for previous Muny work, back on the outdoor stage. As Matron “Mama” Morton, Skinner belts out a terrific “When You’re Good to Mama” and teams with Ghee on one of my favorites, “Class.”

Heller, last seen as Ben Franklin in “1776,” plays Roxy’s cuckolded husband Amos Hart as a more naïve sad sack, not realizing how he is being manipulated. He strikes the right tone for an affecting ‘Mr. Cellophane.”

With her sweet soprano, Ali Ewoldt poses as the powerful radio personality Mary Sunshine and sings the ironic “Little Bit of Good.”

Regular Michael James Reed capably portrays five different roles in the ensemble: stage manager, Sgt. Fogarty, doctor, Aaron and the Judge.

The technical elements were also superior, with costume designer Emily Rebholz’s striking work with vintage fashions and for limber dance outfits, accompanied by strong wig design by Tommy Kurzman.

The shortened season is coming to an end, and what the Muny achieved this summer is remarkable, putting five shows together in eight weeks. This is also the time for a fond farewell to Denny Reagan, who is retiring after spending 53 years at the Muny, the last 30 as President and CEO.

A trip to the Muny isn’t complete until you greet Denny, or see him greeting patrons, at his ‘spot.’ We look forward to working with his top-shelf successor, Kwofe Coleman, starting in January.

Cell Block Tango. Photo by Phillip Hamer.

This collaborative production was a grand, great, swell time where all the elements came together in blissful harmony.

Attendance for the opening night performance was 6,435. The show runs an estimated 2 hours and 30 minutes.

“Chicago” is the final show of the shortened 103rd five-show season,  through Sunday, Sept. 5. Performances are at 8:15 p.m. each evening on the outdoor stage in Forest Park. Emerson was the 103rd season sponsor.

For more information, visit muny.org.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the box office, online at muny.org or by phone by calling (314) 361-1900 ext. 1550.

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The company of ‘Chicago.” Photo by Phillip Hamer.